Landing that first job is often seen as a badge of success by college grads. This year, a large majority of them expect a position in their chosen field with formal training and a sizeable paycheck, according to a recent survey from consulting firm Accenture Ltd.

Interviews with 16 current and former CEOs suggest those expectations are overblown. Your earliest jobs may indeed brand you for life, their experiences show – but not always in the way you expect. A few first jobs serve as a professional boot camp or launching pad. But others turn out to be a side trip into the weeds or a lesson in jobs to avoid.

A first job can teach core career skills, as did Campbell Soup Co.’s Denise Morrison’s stint in sales for Procter & Gamble Co., and Beechcraft Corp.’s Bill Boisture’s time as an Air Force pilot. Martha Stewart, of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, says she honed her unflappable TV presence by working as a fashion model.

Other CEOs picked up critical skills they had no idea they needed. Ed Whitacre was worried about lacking technical know-how on his first job as a 22-year-old telephone-company crew foreman. A savvy boss, however, showed him that people skills were more important by getting him out of his office to talk to his crew – a lesson Whitacre says served him well as chief of AT&T Inc. and General Motors Co.

Other executives learned a lot about what they didn’t want to do. A stint at Chase Manhattan Bank sent Sodexo’s Michel Landel fleeing a career in finance. Some 7 in 10 executives are working in fields they weren’t planning to pursue when they started college, according to a survey of 600 executives last year by Korn/Ferry International, a talent management company.

As for expecting a job in your chosen field with a fat paycheck and status? The interview question KeyCorp CEO Beth Mooney heard most often after graduating summa cum laude from the University of Texas with a degree in history was, “How fast can you type?”

She agreed to take a $9,600-a-year post as a secretary at a bank, and the rest is history.

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Written and edited by The Wall Street Journal’s Management & Careers group, At Work covers life on the job, from getting ahead to managing staff to finding passion and purpose in the office. Tips, questions? email us.